Category: Writing

In September my interview with Norwegian < English translator, Don Bartlett was published on the ELit Literature House Europe website and the European Literature Network. I have worked with Don on his translations of Gunnar Staalesen’s crime novels for Orenda Books; and in preparation for the interview, I took my first plunge into Karl Ove Knausgaard’s remarkable work. The result […]

In January I was once again editor of the European Literature Network’s monthly Riveting Reviews. January’s reviews were devoted to Dutch Literature. Celebrating #HighImpactAllStars – the Network’s evening of literature from the Low Countries, ably hosted, as always by Rosie Goldsmith – alongside Dutch specialist Aimee Hardy, I commissioned and edited reviews of new titles in English from Herman Koch, Gerard Reve, Esther Gerritsen, […]

In September 2016, I was delighted to be longlisted for The Old Vic 12 competition, playwrights section. The competition is part of The Old Vic’s New Voices programme, and is aimed at developing new talent in various theatre disciplines: ‘The Old Vic 12 sees emerging creatives engaging with people at the top of their profession across a wide range of […]

Over the past few months, I’ve been contributing monthly reviews to the excellent European Literature Network, a project led by journalist and champion of all things literary and European, Rosie Goldsmith. My recent reviews include a feature-length piece on Stephanie Heuet & Arthur Goldhammer’s adaptation of Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time: Swann’s Way, which I found visually appealing, but satisfying only […]

When I was editor at Dalkey Archive Press, one of my first jobs was editing The Tree With No Name, a seminal work by probably Slovenia’s foremost living writer, Drago Jančar. So, when Elit, Literature House Europe, chose Jančar as one of the authors it wanted to feature in its series of articles about how various European countries respond to literature from other parts […]

Having reviewed the two translations of Máirtin Ó Cadhain’s seminal Irish-language work, Cré na Cille that YUP’s Margellos World Republic of Letters published this year, I had the pleasure of interviewing John Donatich, Yale’s Director. Our discussion about the motivations behind publishing two translations of the same book within the same year, and the significance of Ó Cadhain’s masterpiece can be found both here on […]

I recently wrote a piece, published jointly by Rosie Goldsmith’s European Literature Network and ELit – Literaturhaus Europa, about how the UK receives the work of US-Bosnian novelist Aleksandar Hemon and how this differs from his US reception. Focusing on Hemon’s complex novel The Lazarus Project, I investigate how the novelist’s life experience and the differing histories of the UK […]

With Rosie Goldsmith away in the US for a month, I was given the honour of stepping into her shoes and writing the European Literature Network’s newsletter. Following Rosie’s lead, this is my personal take on events and issues affecting European literature and culture over the month. Read my newsletter here.

In March I wrote another feature-length review for Rosie Goldsmith’s European Literature Network website. This time I reviewed the two translations of Máirtin Ó Cadhain’s seminal Irish-language work Cre na Cille, pushlished by Yale University Press. I preferred Alan Titley’s more vigorous, urgent version, published as The Dirty Dust, over Liam Mac Con Iomaire and Tim Robinson’s Graveyard Clay. However, either translation is a […]

I’m delighted that my short, ten-minute play Why Run? has been selected for performance at Theatre 503 as part of the Rapid Write Response to Stuart Slade’s fantastic BU21. Theatre 503 encourages new writers to see one of their plays in its first week, then write rapidly a response in short play form. The theatre then selects the best seven responses and […]